


NAI Agent Zachary Calder - "Adorable. Entertaining. And yes, Valuable."

by aceofhearts88



Series: STRIKE Team Alpha Series [9]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, back story for an original character, escaping from the Triskelion, won't make much sense without reading the other works in the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 14:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10641669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aceofhearts88/pseuds/aceofhearts88
Summary: Zachary Calder was Head of the NAI Department for Advanced Technological Analysis.DATA.Yeah, yeah, haha, but he didn't care. He was 26, at the top of everything he had ever dreamt of at 26.--Won't make much sense without reading the other works in the series, especially "Walking it Off".





	

**Author's Note:**

> Zach's facecast is Dylan O'Brien if you want a visual while reading.

NAI Agent Zachary Calder – "Adorable. Entertaining. And yes, Valuable."

Zachary Calder was not your average NAI agent, he was more your very much average clumsy nerd with a badge, a forensic kid and fingers always ready to hack themselves into the next government computer.

Zachary Calder was not a field agent, oh god no, not with those jumpy reflexes and that aversion for guns and violence, not with that talent to cut himself on paper on a daily basis.

No, Zach was Head of the NAI Department for Advanced Technological Analysis.

DATA.

Sammy Radcliff – best friend, best girl, best everything – teased him about it endlessly about how tacky and perfect it sounded for him. The tech geek surrounded by data all day long. Zach still was proud, so fucking proud of where he had made it, how far he had come and maybe sometimes he couldn't believe it still.

Couldn't believe that he was the Avenger's fucking data specialist, that the entire analysis of technology was running through him.

At 26.

At the top of everything he had ever dreamed of at 26.

\--

Twelve years ago, it couldn't have looked more different.

Twelve years ago, he was nothing and no one.

A scrap of a terrified teenager faced with the most difficult and at the same time easiest decision of his entire life.

\--

Zachary Calder was fourteen when he betrayed everything he was raised to believe in.

\--

Born as the second son to one of the most secretively powerful men in Canada, Zachary had quickly, even as a toddler still, realized that in the eyes of his father he was useless and if at all the only place for him under his father's roof was deeply hidden in the shadows like a mouse.

Never seen.

Never heard.

What irony.

Considering who his father was and what he was creating.

Algernon Calder, the Head of Canada's Department N, the Director of Canada's Ninja Academy. 

But what sounded so prestigious and mysterious was in fact a ruthless academy where young girls were drilled, trained and shaped into emotionless shadow assassins. 

Ninjas.

Zach grew up in constant fear of his harsh and cold father and his violent short tempered brother, in constant fears over the cutting insults his father threw at him and the crushing pain his brother inflicted on him if he didn't hid himself fast enough.

He quickly learned to be quick, to always be on his guard, to move silently, to become nothing and no one. And even back then, even aged six and shaking and trembling under the roof behind the old closet, Zach knew that without the help of the girls he would have long been dead. There were always nice ones, most of the time they didn't make it far, were cast aside, were 'taken care of', but someone was always there who had pity, who cared at least a little.

Some of the girls protected them in a way they could, helped him hide, brought him food and water, took care of wounds and bruises when Jonathan had been too rough again. 

\--

Aged six, knowing that without a miracle he will die in this place, his home, without anyone knowing.

\--

Aged seven, Julie teaching him how to read and write.

\--

Aged nine, realizing that no one pays attention to him and that he can use it to gain information.

\--

Aged ten, Julie holding him through the nights as fever ravaged his too skinny body after the wounds Jonathan and Angelica had inflicted upon him had gotten infected.

\--

Aged eleven, hacking into his brother's computer and sending a first cry for help into the Dark Net.

\--

Aged thirteen, experiencing the worst and best month of his life, barely escaping the advances of his brother's loyal girls and getting in contact with Shield. And asking himself for the very first time if his father hated him so much because Zach's mother had died giving him a chance at life.

\--

Aged fourteen, making the hardest and at the same time easiest decision of his life: betraying his family.

\--

For weeks he prepared, left no chance to making a simple mistake, everything was planned like battle strategies, and he only let Julie and Alice in on the plan once he was sure he was only one step from going through with it. They were the only ones left on his side. Eighteen year old Julie, the best of the best, and her sweet chamber partner Alice, Zach's age, but so brave, so strong and quick, so smart.

Contact with Shield was established, escape plans made, Zach knew where to go and whom to look for, an agent called Hawkeye.

\--

Despite his best effort, his trys to get Julie and Alice convinced to come with him were heard but not accepted as they hushed him through the dark corridors to get to the door leading down to the hidden part of the basement. Zach carrying his shoes in his hands to keep from making a sound, the girls having a gentle but strong hand on each of his arms, the backpack heavy on his back, filled to the brink with incriminating evidence.

It was easy.

Too easy really.

Too goddamn simple.

They made it down to the small hidden corridor at which end the entrance to the hidden part of the basement laid, the one that had the secret tunnel leading out into the old chapel on the grounds. Heavy steps in the main corridor behind them had them all freeze up, Julie let go of him and whirled around, silver flashing in her now free hands, ninja stars ready to be used.   
"Go." She directed at Alice but Zach kept his feet firmly in place, shaking his head and looking with teary eyes at Julie, "Go, Zach, I got him."

Because those footsteps, everyone knew them, everyone knew what they meant. Jonathan was up, and if he was up this late, he was drunk. Zach shook his head harder when Alice tugged on his arm, no, he would not escape with the knowledge that Julie would have to pay for it.  
"Come with me." He begged one last time and Julie gently framed his face with both hands, ninja stars carefully held out of harm's way.

"My story isn't done here, little owl." She told him, smiling so beautiful as always, "I've got to play my part yet, protect others from Jon and Angie. We'll see each other again, alright? One day, I'll find you and then we'll all be free, but now you need to run. I'll be fine, I know what to do." Julie promised him and then nodded for Alice to open the door, Zach was left watching after her as Julie walked back towards the main corridor, sending him one last smile before she vanished around the corner and then Alice was pushing him down onto the basement staircase and he was back to running.

Alice took watch as he slipped into his shoes in the chapel, heart pounding so hard in his chest that he expected a rip to break any second. So close, he was so close already to achieving the first step in his plan. And then the two of them were running from shadow to shadow on the large grounds until Alice was boosting him over the fence on the furthest edge, easily climbing over it by herself afterwards, landing soundlessly on her feet in front of him.

"Can't you come with me?" He pleaded with her again for the last time as well, he liked her, really liked her, and Alice smiled, made another step closer and framed his face just like Julie had done it only minutes ago.  
"I'm not strong as you are, Zach. I need to learn still, learn from Julie, but I'll go with her. I'll come with her and we'll be together again in the future." She promised as well and then leaned in to press a kiss upon his lips.

His first kiss.

Given to him by the girl he wouldn't see again for a very very long time, but he would never forget her.

\--

He looked over his shoulder twice as he was running through the forest then, at the first time Alice was still watching him, at the second time she was gone, and Zach was running.

For them.

\--

Only the hand being slapped over his mouth kept the scream from escaping his lips as the hooded figure appeared out of thin air and pulled him into a side alley behind the abandoned old motel. Zach felt everything inside of him turn into a fire and he wanted to fight, wanted to scream and yell, he hadn't even made it halfway to the meeting point.

This couldn't be happening, not after everything he had done. He had worked so hard to get here, he had been so careful, this just couldn't be happening. 

He couldn't fight though, the man pulling him behind a dumpster, he was strong and taller, and as much as he wanted Zach couldn't bring his limbs to move anywhere else but exactly where his attacker was dragging him. In all of his frantic panicking, Zach didn't realize until he was sitting down against a cold wall, a gloved hand still over his mouth and this unknown man crouched down and leaning over him that there were voices in the distance.

Coming from the street he had just calmly walked down.

"You heard what he said."

And Zach froze, eyes going so wide it hurt as his ears picked up the faint sound of heels clicking on the ground.

No.

Oh god no.

Angelica.

"I heard what he said, doesn't mean I believe a word Julie is saying. She's a bitch, Angie." 

Bianca.

The man in front of him signaled to be quiet and only pulled his hand back after Zach had nodded, a black sweater hood got pulled back, revealing a young man with short dark blond hair and gentle blue eyes. He made it clear for Zach to stay put as he soundlessly moved back to his feet, Zach wouldn't have been able to move anyway, too caught in a complete frozen meltdown. Angelica and Bianca hadn't been supposed to be back for another two days, that had been the sole reason on why he had chosen this time window.

His brother wouldn't have trusted any of the other girls to go after him and actually bring him in their father's absence.

And then the man slipped into the darkness, away from the dim light the street light at the corner threw into the side alley and Zach was left slipping. Slipping and slipping. He wasn't even aware that he had dropped his face against his knees, breaths burning in his lungs, trembling from head to toe, hands pulled into fists so hard his fingernails were pulling blood.

Please don't let it be for nothing, he kept on repeating in his head frantically, terrified right out of his mind. 

The hand carefully being laid on his shoulder scared him so hard that he lurched up and knocked his head against the brick wall behind himself.  
"Woah, hey, hey!" The man from before spoke up, "Hey, easy, you're okay, kid." He assured him, busy slipping out of the black sweater and pushing Zach's still shaking and unresponsive arms into it before zipping it shut in the front and pulling the hood over Zach's head, "You're okay, kid. I'm Hawkeye, I've been sent to grab you."

Relief had never felt so good.

At least Zach could breathe again.

"The meeting point?"

"Was a fluke, intended to lead anyone who might have overseen the messages into a false trap. Okay, come on." Hawkeye told him, helping and supporting him as Zach somehow got back to his feet, legs feeling boneless, he was still shaking so bad. "Those ninjas won't be up for another half an hour and I am intending to be off in the air by then." Hawkeye told him, smiling reassuringly, Zach could only nod and follow along as the older man led him further into the alley with an arm around his shoulders, his free hand was holding a gun.

\--

Hawkeye led him to a field behind the old motel grounds and the closed-for-the-upcoming-winter public swimming pool where a black jet was waiting with low running engines in the wings. Zach didn't have any room left in his still too overwhelmed head to pay any attention to the advanced tech, just let himself be led up into the jet and sat down in a seat.

"Get us into the air, won't you?" Hawkeye called towards the cockpit where Zach could barely make out someone sitting behind the controls, but the ramp they had walked up got raised and the engines got a little louder. Hawkeye sat down next to him and then they were moving.

"Take a few breaths, okay? You're gonna be okay, kid. You're safe now."

The adrenaline rushed out of Zach in one breath and from one moment to the next he felt so tired, completely and utterly drained. 

He had made it.

He had gotten out.

And when Hawkeye laid a hand on his knee and squeezed in comfort, Zach, for the first time in his life, experienced the feeling of safety.

\--

And he got a family.

A family, friends and a best friend.

He got the Radcliffs, the Bartons and most of all he got Sammy.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to scare you." Sammy apologized after Zach had jumped upon her walking into the kitchen so quietly and suddenly standing there on the other side of the kitchen island. "I couldn't sleep and I saw the light on, wanted to see if someone else maybe couldn't sleep either." Zach looked at her as she wandered around the island and pulled down a mug for herself next to where he had been pondering over tea bags. 

Teresa had so many. So many choices. So many possibilities.

It was so overwhelming for Zach, who had never really starved but never been given the choice of options either. He had eaten what he had been able to scramble together or what the nice girls had given him when no one had been looking.

"I think I'm gonna make hot cocoa. You want some before the tea decides to drink you?" Sammy ripped him out of his thoughts and knocked their elbows gently together. In the three weeks since Zach had been welcomed into the house and the family, Sammy and him had gotten along well. They were growing close, becoming friends.

Zach had right from the start felt like he could trust her with anything, but he was still hesitating, was still growing into letting someone be close to him. 

"Cocoa sounds great." He decided and pushed the tea box back again, Samm grabbed his mug and went to work, and then turned to him as both their mugs were warming up in the microwave.  
"You okay? So far it seemed like you were sleeping okay." Sammy pointed out to him and Zach offered a small smile, she was right, Zach had slept like the dead these last weeks, because he felt safe.

Because the Radcliffs had taken him in, not like a temporary guest but like an addition to their family. The house was remote and Theodore had assured him again and again in the beginning days that barely anyone at Shield knew how to get to them. Zach was safe, he felt safe, felt welcomed.

"I'm good...little nervous maybe, got my first questioning at Shield tomorrow." Zach explained quietly and Sammy smiled at him.  
"Nothing to be nervous about. They're the good guys." She told him, grabbing their mugs as the microwave beeped and then motioning for him to follow her as she walked over into the living room, settling down on the curved bench in the window alcove. She handed him his mug after he had sat down and gotten comfortable as well, and then she threw a blanket over their legs before blowing on her cocoa. "Do you know who will pick you up?"  
"Originally Clint but something came up and now it's an Agent Viktora?" Zach offered up as a question in the end, he would have really preferred Clint, someone familiar, Sammy though was grinning, "But I'll spent the nights at Clint's and Laura's house." 

"Agent Viktora is Clint's daughter, and she'll want you to call her Sarah five minutes in. She's awesome, specialist, sniper to be precise, but she's got a science background. You'll like her." Sammy spoke up, taking a sip of her cocoa before continuing, "She's only four years older than we are, only recently started out at Shield. Clint rescued her three years ago, she was being held as a prisoner by her own father and brothers. And hey, we're still on vacation time, if you want I can come with you. Probably not as far as the questioning but I can go and see Aunt Laura while you're busy."

"You would?" Zach asked in surprise, leaning forward a little, mug still clutched tightly in his hands, the warmth felt good and soothing.  
"Of course, Laura won't mind having me around. Sarah will be happy to have someone to rant to anyway, she doesn't have friends yet really. I'll gladly come with you to DC, we'll have fun, you won't have any time to feel nervous." And then she leaned in with a smirk that was comforting and exciting at the same time, "You'll be okay, Zach. And now drink before it gets cold."

\--

When Zach stumbled his way down to breakfast early that morning, a couple of sleep in his system but by far not enough, he kind of froze in the doorway of the dining room. Teresa was humming to herself at the stove, making bacon, there was no sign of Rita or Sammy yet, also no surprise there, they both loved sleep.

And had vacations.

Theodore though was for once not drinking his coffee while reading the newspaper, instead he was drinking his coffee and talking to a redheaded girl sitting across the table from him.  
"Zachary!" He was greeted warmly and Zach slowly edged further into the room, "Zach, meet Agent Sarah Viktora. I believe Sammy has told you about her by now surely." Theodore began and Zach nodded as he sunk down into the seat he had so far been taking at the table.

It brought him directly next to Agent Viktora.

"Sarah is just fine." Viktora spoke up, smiling at him, leaving Zach even more breathless than he already was, "It's nice to meet you, Zachary. I've heard a lot about you from Clint already." He could only hum in reply, left hand fumbling around until he found the cereal box. He was saved from having to articulate anything more coherent by Sammy stumbling into the room and nearly taking down the candle holder on the sideboard.

"Good Morning." She mumbled around a huge yawn, only to jump to attention in the next second when she caught sight of their guest, "Hey, Sarah, you're here early."  
"Morning, and I'm actually quite on time, you're running late, Radcliff." Sarah explained calmly while Sammy flopped down on the seat next to her grandfather.  
"Oh shut up, you told me you'd be here at eight when I texted you yesterday, and we both know that means you're not expecting us to leave until nine." Sammy grumbled and reached for the tea pot, Theodore though reached out a hand and laid it on hers, stopping her from pulling the tea pot over.

"I expect both of you to be on your best behavior while you're in DC. No one jumps into the Potomac this time." Theodore argued and while Zach snapped his head up and frowned at him, Sammy and Sarah both looked down to hide a smirk, "And you two keep an eye on Zach, actually keep him safe and comfortable and don't get him into trouble. Otherwise I'm gonna make some calls to have eyes on you.

"Yes, Sir." 

\--

Of course, they get into trouble, but they kept Zach out of it.

The weekend in DC was still a full success and though some of the questions were kinda heavy, Zach still gave them as much and as best as he could. And he felt safe, as expected Sammy hadn't been able to come with him, skipping off to spent time with Laura but Sarah staid with him for the most part.

And even back then one look from sharp green eyes had made many agents sweat immediately.

Zach couldn't believe he was making such great friends.

\--

During another questioning stint down at the Triskelion a few short months later, Zach kinda inspired Sarah to try out for Strike.

By accident.

For a while he remained convinced that Clint would kill him for it.

\--

Sarah got in. Zach had a friend in Strike. Holy shit.

\--

Time progressed and with every day, every week, every month that passed with his past falling back into his life, Zach was looking forward to a future he could form for himself.

Forever protected but also forever safe.

Sammy and him started at the Shield Academy for Communications together and after storming through the classes and the tests, they both made their way into Shield internship program, quickly letting their names become something to be known.

Sammy was personally grabbed by Maria Hill, a woman Zach was horribly scared of, and though she was young, she was by far more experienced than anyone else in their class and she was the top of the year and the statistics even had her at the top of the two years above them. And with Sarah brazing through the ranks at Strike in the Commander's team, the name Viktora was rather suddenly associated with 'feared', while Sammy got the adjective 'terrifying', they couldn't love it any more.

Zach was in such an awe.

His friends.

His awesome friends.

And when people spoke out his name, no one linked him back to his father and his brother and their agendas in Canada. No one flinched away from him because of his past.

No.

They flinched away because of the green-eyed 'back-off' glare of puppy-protection a black clad Strike agent laid on anyone who dared to bother him. They flinched away because of the sharp-tongued wit of best friend loyalty a dark blue clad Shield Agent whipped out at anyone who dared to not see Zach for the brilliant analyst he was.

Not that there were a lot of people who bothered him or looked at him the wrong way for his youth, his protection status or the amount of whispered rumors surrounding his past. People were nice, people were helpful.

\--

Zach was not patient, he wasn't calm or cool and he sure as hell wasn't suited with nerves of steel. He was a nervous, too energized, hyperactive emotional geek with the coolest job in the whole fucking world and if that brought him face to face with some of the world's most dangerous people on a daily basis, who cared.

He loved his job, he fucking loved his job, he would almost kill everyone daring to endanger him having this job.

Emphasis on almost.

Not that he like got faint at the sight of blood or bleeding people, even if he really really didn't like it when people bled. He just hated the freaking violence aspect of that whole potential murder idea.

"CALDER!"

Zack was a freaking happy puppy in a big bad world of wolves, even when the alpha of all alphas came to visit.

Half of his colleagues jumped and quickly made themselves scarce when the glass doors slid open fully and heavy steps entered, boots thundering over the ground almost. Zack though, he finished bagging the samples and only then swung around, arms flailing a little when he stumbled over his own feet in the movement.

Commander Douchebag looked as unimpressed as he always did, while behind him Sarah and Sammy both raised a perfectly formed eyebrow, handsome as ever.  
"What can I do for you, Sir?" Zack wanted to know, trying to casually lean back against the work station behind him but failing epically once more when his left hand slid back on a piece of paper and he had to flail some more to avoid wiping his desk clean and ruining three hours of work.

Sammy was by then desperately biting her lips to not start chuckling and make things three times more worse, while Sarah kept her pokerface and only let her eyes tell how sorry she was for the sudden drop. Rumlow was scowling, as if there was a whole book of comments he was only biting back because there had already been a vicious argument between Sarah and him last week in the same exact place over how to treat your non-Strike colleagues.

At least it had looked vicious to Zack, all with knife pulling and yelling and snarling, Sammy had later told him that it was just warm up program for them. 

He had dared to ask what that meant and had then quickly regretted even letting his brain go there, he was still working on unseeing those mental images.

"Forensic report." Rumlow snapped and Zack felt his spine straighten so quick that he swayed on the spot again, Rumlow took a deep breath, "I want the forensics report to the Calahassi case, it's rather urgent."  
"It's not." Sarah immediately added from behind his shoulder, "It's really not." She grinned and met Zack's probably freaked out eyes, "Take all the time you need, and if it isn't done yet, we will gladly give you the appropriate time to finish it because we know how busy and exhausting this job must be." And she ended her sentence with a slap against Rumlow's thigh, he grunted, crossed his arms over his chest and said nothing, just kept on staring at Zack.

"One sec....I...think I...." And he turned around quickly again, hands pushing around files and paperwork on his search for the right map, "I should have it finished already." And he flipped case files around, he wasn't really scared of Rumlow, despite his larger than life bearing, his constant scowling and his tendency to let his temper get the better of himself, he was butter in the hands of his youngest teammember and his second-in-command.

And since both of them were rather fond of Zach, big bad Commander had no chance but to keep his tongue in check. So no, Zach was not scared, more unnerved by him.

"Got it!" He nevertheless got to call out in the next moment, twirling around on one foot again, only to lose his balance, stumble forward a few steps and he would have faceplanted right into Rumlow's chest if Rumlow hadn't snapped out a hand to catch him. Zach quickly rightened himself again and handed over the file with a bright grin, behind Rumlow Sarah was laughing behind her hand and Sammy sighed. "There you go, Calahassi case file, completed and sorted. All done."

"And we are grateful for your hard work, Zach, and we are thanking you for a swift processing of the forensic analysis, aren't we, Brock?" Sarah said in a very weird kind of tone that had Rumlow's jaws harden for a moment before he bit out a "yes" before turning on the spot and striding out of the lab again. Sarah rolled her eyes at Zach and then hurried after him, only Sammy remained behind, walking over to his desk to thumb through the chaos.

"Well, someone's in a good mood again." Zach noted and went back to his work, moving effortlessly around his best friend, "Did HR pin him down for another 'good behavior in the workplace' seminar?" Sammy snorted in response to his question.  
"I think they've long given up on Strike in total, and on Rumlow especially. Hey, do you still need much time with this? Granny is making fish tonight, I kinda wanna drive up today already." She changed the topic in the end, bright pleading eyes looking over to him and Zach grinned, shoved the files onto a pile and then turned off his laptop.

"I'm good. Let's go."

\--

Despite his four times a year mandatory therapy session with a Shield approved psychiatrist to work on 'helping him move past the trauma', Zach did not openly flinch or get a psychotic episode whenever someone mentioned the words 'ninja', 'Canada' or 'Academy' in any kind of context. Though it was kinda hilarious when Toby from statistics tried to explain his favourite ninja movie to him without using the word ninja. Could have gotten really really funny if Sammy hadn't snapped before the pulsing artery on Toby's forehead did in stress.

The thing was, people often brought up the word ninja when they talked about Romanov, Zach was quite convinced they had Clint to blame for that comparison to be brought up in the first place. So he was actually so used to people throwing out ninjas that he didn't even react anymore. It was no surprise hence why Clint could appear down in Laura's lab with Laura following along and Zach had no idea why they were grinning so bright. Sarah had been really hurt only two days ago, and though she was doing better already as Zach had been able to see early this morning when he had gotten in to work, he was still surprised to see Clint in such good spirits.

He raised both eyebrows, especially when Laura walked over and ruffled his hair where Zach had previously gone through the evidence of the botched surveillance op Kappa had been attacked on. Strictly speaking, Zach didn't have clearance for it, but Jack had made it clear that right now they didn't trust anyone but Laura and him to do this right, not until they had figured out who had let them run into open rebel fire.

And Zach didn't have the courage to say no to Jack when he was looking frazzled, Jack was not meant to look frazzled.

"Wouldn't have expected to see you down here." Clint began and poked at a few prepared samples, snatching his hand quickly away again though when Laura clicked her tongue at him.   
"Down here? Working? Working on trying to figure out who put your daughter into the medbay?" Zach wanted to know in open puzzlement, turning to look up at Laura, "Did you pick up the wrong Clint from the gym?"

"You're hilarious." Clint grunted as Laura laughed, flicking a finger against Zach's left ear, "No, I am serious. I bring you a friend into the house and you're working like a good little agent?" And Zach gaped at him for a moment before he drew is eyebrows even harder together in confusion.  
"A friend? I thought Sammy was in Madripoor for at least another week." He asked in confusion, looking from Clint to Laura and back again, both of them now smiling, if surprised over his befuddlement.

"You really don't know?" Laura mixed herself into the conversation then as well and Zach felt his face slowly morph into an annoyed frown, "Zach, hun, did no one tell you about the ninja?"  
"They're all talking about ninjas." Zach spoke up hesitantly, setting the destroyed phone to the side for good and swinging around on the chair, nearly slipping off and only staying on it because Clint snapped out a hand, "I thought Natasha had pulled something epic again on your latest mission. Where were you anyway, you were gone so quickly."

Clint blinked at him, obviously lost on words for a moment and then his face turned into the warmest brightest smile Zach had seen on him in a while. It kinda scared him more than it helped right then. "We were in Toronto, Zach, and the ninja isn't Nat. It's the girl we brought in." 

And Clint stopped talking just as the words registered for good in Zach's mind, everything going absolutely quiet as he snapped his head up to really look at Clint, freezing into complete stillness for one short moment. Before he jumped to his feet, something inside of him screaming loud.

It's the girl we brought in.

The ninja isn't Natasha.

It's the girl they brought in.

"What's her name?" He questioned and wow, his voice could sound so stable when he was freaking right out of his mind on the inside. How were the chances, how big were the chances that it was one of them. One of the good ones, one of those who deserved it more than others. One of them. Oh god, please, please, please, please let it be one of them at least. One of them saved. One of them given the freedom back they had always dreamed about.

He felt Laura coming to stand at his back, a gentle hand on his arm and Zach only then got aware of how much he was vibrating with nerves.  
"Her name is Julie..." But Clint couldn't even finish before he had Zach almost right in his face, one hand raised to keep himself braced against the older man's shoulder.  
"Where is she?" And oh god, his head was spinning, his heart had never pounded like this before, "Please, Clint, where is she?"

And Clint was grinning, already grabbing ahold of Zach's shoulders and turning him towards the door, "She's with Sarah, playing company. She's not allowed to go anywhere unattended just yet."

But the last words didn't even register anymore with Zach, he was already running.

\--

He made it to the medbay with only five casualties and six run over people, one door ran into and one foot getting nearly squished in an elevator.

Quite a good outcome.

Considering where his head was, namely all over the place, back in Canada, back in time, back in the Academy, back in the night he had run. Back to freezing on the spot, terrified for his life when his brother's steps could be heard from the end of the corridor, and then Julie squeezing his hands one last time before letting go of them and swiftly turning around to give him the chance he needed. Risking punishment to help him gain freedom.

And even now, even now running up the stairs to the second floor of the medbay, Zach was still able to see the smile on Julie's face as if it had only been yesterday. So clear as day. That smile of encouragement, that belief in her eyes that he was doing the right thing, and then she had disappeared around the corner and Alice had pushed him into the basement staircase.

He had thought he would never see either of them ever again.

And now Julie was here.

Julie was here.

\--

Sarah's private room was at the end of the corridor and in his doubled haste, Zach nearly ran over a nurse, excusing himself profoundly at least six times as he hurried to pick up the papers she had dropped, making an even bigger mess out of it before she waved him away to do it herself. 

He apologized another three times but then made his stumbling way over to the half open door of his redhaired friend's room. Someone was laughing, someone male, maybe Jack, and then the sound of Sarah's grumbling sarcasm, clearly still unhappy about being forced to bedrest.

His ears were ringing, hands shaking and sweating, knees feeling like jelly as he approached the door, curled his fingers around the frame and then swung himself into the room. Every single funny quip dying on his lips, dying in his throat as he saw her.

Julie.

In the flesh.

Julie.

Sitting right there in the chair on the right side of Sarah's bed.

Julie.

Zach couldn't even breathe anymore, was totally frozen to the spot, his head seemingly empty of any coherent thought as he stared at the brunet young woman slowly raising her head when Sarah had stopped speaking. And somewhere at the back of his consciousness, Zach was very much aware that Jack and Sarah were staring at him, but it didn't matter.

It wasn't important because Julie had looked up and he could see those eyes again. Those eyes he had last seen vanishing around a corner in a dimly lit Academy corridor to confront his brother to give him the chance to make a run for it. And now he couldn't move, couldn't move a single muscle as recognition bloomed in those golden eyes and rosy lips opened for a quiet gasp.

"Zach!"

Her voice broke through the ice keeping his limbs to the ground and Zach stumbled forward. His right foot got stuck on some medical equipment, things went crashing, Sarah yelped, Zach began to flail, Jack scrambled out of his chair, Julie jumped to her feet.

And when the dust had settled...actually more when nothing was falling anymore and the sound of metal crashing to the ground wasn't ringing in his ears anymore, Zach found himself still somehow on his own feet. One of Jack's arm around his chest from behind being the sole reason on why that was the case, the taller man's other hand was keeping the IV stand from toppling over entirely, the ground around their feet was littered with medical equipment and on the bed Sarah had lurched up to keep the IV line from being ripped out of her hand, her free arm clutching at her stomach.

Good one, Zach.

You idiotic klutz.

"Oh, you haven't changed a bit." Julie's voice rang out with half a laugh and Zach found her with one hand over her mouth, laughter in her eyes, and he grinned. And then caught sight of Sarah's glare and became aware of the fond groan behind him.  
"I'm sorry!" He blurted out, "I am so sorry! I am so so terribly sorry! I just heard that...and I...I couldn't...I had to...here...I am SO SORRY!"

"Shut up, Zach, it's fine." Sarah snapped out with way less heat than he had expected, "Jesus bloody Christ, how many people got killed on your way here."  
"Not too many." He fired out, sheepishly looking from Sarah rolling her eyes to Julie beaming at him, "Hi. I am so sorry." 

"Hey." Julie grinned back and with her help and Jack keeping a hand on his arm until he was safely standing on both feet in front of Julie, Zach managed to cross the four feet between them. And then there was no stopping and no barriers anymore and he could throw his arms around Julie, could hug her tight and give a fuck about everything they had both been taught.

Don't show compassion. Don't get attached.

They were free.

Behind him, Jack was muttering quietly, crouching down to clean up the mess after having rolled the IV stand back to the side of the bed. Sarah was groaning but settling back down with a smile on her face. 

"Oh my god, I can't believe you're here." Zach babbled when they broke apart again but kept their hands on each other's forearms. "I thought I would never see you again."  
"I thought so, too." Julie told him, her hands squeezing his arms, "Oh, I had hoped that you had made it and that you were okay, and when no word ever came anymore I made myself believe that you had made it to Shield. I just would have never expected you to still be here, would have thought they had given you a new identity and helped you hide away."

"Him?" Sarah broke into their conversation and they both turned to face her once more lying in the bed, "Never. Way too valuable."  
"And adorable." Jack piped up from the ground without looking up, "Adorable. Entertaining. And yes, valuable." Zach could feel himself blush scarlet and Julie chuckled, leaning against him briefly.

\--

"Why didn't you tell me when I came to see you?" Zach asked a few minutes later, sitting in the chair on Sarah's left after the room had been brought to order again and Jack had disappeared to get some work done.   
"Clint told me he had told Jackson to go and tell you. Jack and Brock both told me that the whole base is mumbling about ninjas. How did you not know?" Sarah wanted to know with raised eyebrows.

"I thought they meant Natasha!" Zach defended himself and Sarah groaned in fond exasperation, shaking her head while chuckling.  
"Only you, Zach, only you. I betcha even Sammy knows by now." Sarah pointed out to him and Zach scowled at her, but grinned quite quickly again when he caught sight of the smile on Julie's relaxed face.

"You two are friends?"

Julie's rather innocent question was met with laughter by Sarah and a grin by him, and after exchanging a look with smirking green eyes, Zach looked over to Julie again, "We are. Since the day Clint Barton brought me to DC. But I'm also her adopted uncle." The expression on Julie's face was enough to have Sarah laugh so hard she had to press a hand to her rips as her injuries protested against the strain.

Zach was so happy.

\--

Life at Shield was great. 

Seeing Julie grasp the meaning and joys of freedom just like he had a few years ago, it was amazing. Watch her fall in love with Sarah, watch Sarah fall in love with her, getting involved in getting them together, being so happy because they were happy.

So many good moments, so much happiness. Sammy's ongoing promotions. Sarah's rise to getting her own team. Baby Cooper. Sarah's and Julie's wedding. The birth of Strike Team Alpha. The addition of Tess. Alpha's rise to the top, Sarah becoming Commander. Sammy becoming the fifth highest ranking agent within Shield.

Of course there were also bad moments. 

Laura's and Cooper's deaths.

The war within Strike.

New York.

The hostage situation down in the interrogation room.

But the good ones, the good ones they managed to overrule them somehow. His life was good.

Until it wasn't.

\--

The night before the events turning their world upside down and inside out, Zach dreamed of snakes sliding out of quinjets.

He was awoken from his nightmare by Sammy shaking his shoulder.

"Fury is dead."

And the real nightmare began.

\--

Even years later, with his friends at his side, safe and sound and actually free, with his past no longer a demon ready to haunt him, Zach still kept a reminder of what had happened. A syringe and an empty manila folder with the case number of Fury's fake murder, grabbed from the ruins of the Triskelion by his own hands. Souvenirs from a catasstrophe, reminders to never again let it come to that.

A way to remember that he had survived.

Survived what could have been a terrible death. Because his lab got flattened.

His lab where Zach had been working as the alarms had started.

He hadn't heard Cap's speech, the speaker system in his lab had been broken for weeks already and he had had music blaring on his earphones anyway. The file with Fury's murder still open on his desk while he worked through finding some traffic cam footage from around Rogers' apartment. His nerves had been buzzing, he had been paranoid as fucking hell, jumpy and really not in a good place.

Cap had been branded a criminal, wanted for treason, wanted for Fury's murder and that was just too much for Zach's brain to compute. 

His hand brushed against the picture frame by accident and he needed to quickly grab it before it could fall over, he stopped working for a moment and looked at Tess's and Sammy's grinning faces instead. A selfie made a year ago, down in the hangar, Zach didn't even remember if it had been pre- or post-mission. In the background, Sarah was yelling at someone and Julie was looking over a tablet, but Zach was more drawn towards the goofy faces Tess and Sammy had pulled.

A picture sent with a message for him. Either saying goodbye or telling him to hurry up so they could get something to eat. Zach didn't remember anymore, there had been so many, but he did think now of how things would have looked like if any of them would be around. Tess, Julie or Sarah. Would it feel this choking and this scary to realize that someone had killed Fury in Cap's apartment? Would they had dared to brand Rogers a traitor if Alpha had been around?

Tess alone would have made a scene.

Zach could still remember her sitting over by centrifuge, poking at collected and prepared samples for blood analysis while Zach was bend over her phone, trying to figure out what was wrong that it totally refused to operate in anything but Mandarin. He had been beginning to think about putting it in quarantine until he had gotten rid of whatever virus it had been infected with, least of all that thing slipped into the agency network.

It had been in the weeks post New York, Rogers had just been assigned to Kappa and Tess had still been grumpy that Sarah had so resolutely fought against Rogers joining Alpha. Zach had understood and not understood Sarah's reasoning, Tess had not been happy, Rogers was her friend and something else as well, Zach had just tried to cheer her up.

"Wouldn't it be awkward anyway?" He had offered up, frowning harder at the phone, should have chosen Mandarin at your last language course instead of Russian again.  
"What would be awkward?" Tess wanted to know, setting down the samples again and pressing another set of buttons when the centrifuge beeped again.  
"Working together with Cap considering what the two of you are doing off duty?" He wanted to know, grabbing a usb cable to connect Tess' phone to his laptop, this was getting ridiculous.

"Drawing?"

And Zach looked up at Tess' reply, raising an eyebrow at the deadpanned tone in her voice, she stared right back at him.

"That what we're calling it now when we're deflowering a national icon? Drawing? Must be one hell of a mural that's being developed there, Queenie." Zach shot at her and instead of quipping back with something even wittier, Tess simply stuck her tongue out at him at first.  
"I am helping him adjust to the twenty-first century." She defended herself then and Zach laughed, one hearty laugh as he sent his analysis programs into Tess' phone.

"Modern sex education included, it seems." Zach joked even though he very much knew how much Tess was in fact helping Rogers in a subtle way, especially with the paperwork that Shield kept throwing at him – Sarah had only too happily joined in – and finding a suitable apartment in DC.  
"You're a jerk." Tess chuckled but didn't disagree so Zach sent a big fat grin over the top of his laptop, just as his tools showed him the cause of the Mandarin problem and he snorted.

"Did you tell him about Stark yet?" Tess shook her head, "Been too busy drawing, screwing, apartment hunting and sparring?" She grinned in response to his next question, Zach rolled his eyes and tapped a finger onto the screen of her phone, Stark issued, of course, "Well, this is a goner unless you get your Commander to give the password." He explained and Tess frowned at him this time, so Zach made it even clearer, "Sarah hacked your phone. I cannot tell what pissed her off this time." Tess groaned and jumped down from the workbench, "I could ask her real nice for you if you get me an autograph from Cap?" He tried with a smile and Tess ruffled his hair after she had walked over.

"Nah, I'll just ask Tony to give me a new one, but thank you anyway. And I'll get you that autograph the next time Steve and I are done drawing." She teased him and Zach playfully gagged for a moment, "I should get back. Steve is waiting for my in the gym, and if anything can turn things awkward then the ass whooping he's gonna get soon." Zach shuddered upon her gleeful grin and handed her phone back to her, "Anything I can take back to Strike? Even Kappa stuff is fine, Jack is in, wouldn't have to deal with Commander Asshole."

And he had given her a few files and then watched her leave the lab with a wink and a grin, pure perfect Tess, passing by Tyson in the doorway. Tyson was also now entering right through said door as Zach blinked himself back into the present.  
"Hey, what can I do for you?" He asked his colleague and only briefly looked down to save another set of footage that had given nothing away at first sight.

And then the alarms rang out loud and shrill and harsh. Zach made eye contact with Tyson again and just somehow knew what was going to happen next as his hand already reached back for the syringe as Tyson curled his hands into fists and came at him.

"Hail Hydra!"

Okay....how about no...

"ZACH!"

Zach rammed the syringe into Tyson's neck and watched him crumble to the ground just as someone was yelling his name outside in the corridor over the still ongoing sounds of alarm, the whole building seemed to rumble strangely.

Getting aware of someone else's presence, Zach whirled around, eyes wide and wild, syringe only falling out of his fingers when he really saw who it was, relief letting his heart pound even harder.  
"He...Sam, he...Tyson Hail-Hydra-ed me..." He stuttered, the panic attack only held back by a small amount of will left in his bones, the building shook again and the alarms got shriller. Sammy grabbed his hand, she tugged at him until he stumbled after her out of his lab.

Down the corridor. Down another one. Staircase. 

The building began to creak all around them.

Up a floor. Up another.

The sound of explosions. Thundering crashes. 

They needed OUT.

One more set of stairs. Out of the staircase. Down a corridor, lights going out, emergency lights flickering on.

Red light everywhere.

And then the ground shook so hard it felt like an earthquake.

No more holding onto each other's hands, Sammy and him were running side by side then, pure instinct and raw training kicking in. No longer two best friends, no longer Shield's top analyst and Shield's Deputy Director's assistant.

No, sliding around corners more gracefully and smoother than on any other occasion, they had turned back into what they had been raised into. Him, the kid grown up in an Academy used to raise deadly women. Her, the kid raised by Shield's former Director, born to be an agent.

Exit in sight. Smoke everywhere. Water... trailing in from the main staircase.

And shots fired.

Zach got pushed to the ground by Sammy and covered low in the first few seconds before he dared to look up and past Sammy's protective stand. Strike. Kappa. Donalds, Phillips and...Jack. Donalds holding Jack up while Phillips shot at the ground at Sammy's feet one more time.

It hit Zach like a sledgehammer to the face then.

Strike was Hydra.

Oh god, Strike was Hydra.

Julie. Tess. Sarah.

"Give us the boy and we'll give you a chance." Agent Phillips was snarling at Sammy, gun raised and aimed, just like Sammy, and on the ground Zach felt every muscle locking him, full on panic attack, full on mental stop. That could only mean one thing, and he really really didn't like it. Hydra wanted him alive and fucking hell no. No. NO.   
"Never gonna happen." Sammy sneered right back, clicking off the safety on her gun, and Zach felt sick down right to the core when Jack looked up, face bloody, his gaze slightly clouded and god he hoped the one who had done this to him was still alive to congratulate.

Traitor.

You made me trust you.

You made me fucking believe I was save here. You made me like you.

The ground...no the whole building shook again, harder even this time and something heavy thumped against the door of the staircase, more water trickling down under it. Zach knew what laid in that direction, knew the danger they were in now, never mind the three Strike agents facing off against them.

"Zach..." Sammy began quietly, Zach prepared himself for crazy stupid improvised plans and moved up onto his feet again despite still free falling inside his head, too much, just too much, they needed to get out and away from her right now, "Prepare to run really really fast." Sammy told him and he trusted her to do the right thing, breathing in and out deep, legs shifting to be ready.

"Whatever you think you can do girl, you have no chance against us." Phillips threatened Sammy, next to him Donalds shifted slightly under Jack's supposedly staggering weight. 

Traitors.

"NOW ZACH!" Sammy screamed, shot at Jack and then whirled to the side, taking one more shot but Zach was already running, didn't even look to know if it had worked, the thundering noise exploding all around them was proof enough, the door burst out of its hold as the water of the Potomac found a weakened barrier, streaming into the corridor like a floodwave.

And then it was running for them, water spilling around their feet, the flood chasing them as the enemy now, but at least this one wasn't shooting. As the fire exit door finally came into view, the water was already up to their knees and running had slowed into desperate treading against it. Sammy cursed as she took a shot at the glass door, realizing that though their way out was finally granted, her gun had just used its last bullet.

They stumbled and jumped outside, not bothering to look left or right, their hands met again as the water went wide outside the building and they could run again. Not sparing any attention for what was actually happening, Sammy turned them over to the parking lot. She had no intention to go for a car, let alone her own, Zach knew that, didn't even have to think about it really, the Triskelion had only one access road and no way that one wasn't blocked already.

No way out the obvious way.

Different plan.

He ran down the stairs at the back of the parking lot, ears intuned to any sound of people moving around them, Sammy's hand in his in a death grip. She might as well be the only one left out of his friends. 

\--

"Oh, hell no." Zach caught onto Sammy's plan as the end of the green area came in sight, Sammy tugged only harder on his hand and he still followed her blindly.  
"Oh, hell yes. Or do you want to turn around and get shot?" Sammy pointed out to him, throwing her empty gun somewhere off to the side, useless baggage. They stopped in front of the railing and she shrugged out of her uniform blazer in a rush, pushing her phone as deep into her pockets as possible, kicking off her shoes and then threw it all into the river below them.

Zach whined but still directed by panic and desperate fear, he let his lab coat and his own shoes follow. 

"Pretty sure that jerk didn't want to shoot me." He laughed out in pure hysteria and next to him he saw Sammy shiver with the emotion behind. No, they really had wanted him whole and unharmed, and that scared him more than the alternative. Because if they wanted him alive, Hydra was making allies and Zach was meant to be a present.  
"All the more reason to jump." Sammy offered up, both of them already climbing upon the railing, explosions thundering in their ears, the sky was burning gold above them. 

And as he jumped and closed his eyes as his feet touched the cold water, Zach did imagine that this was how the end of the world would surely truly look like. The world going down in flame after everything and almost everyone you had ever believed in and trusted in had stabbed a knife into your back and twisted and turned it for years. He barely gave himself a second to catch his breath as he came up again, immediately pushing himself to swim to shore, Western side of the Potomac, away from the chaos. He was picking himself up to his feet in the muddy sand as the helicarrier further down the river exloded into a sea of flames and crashed into the water, sending a floodwave up the river as Sammy and him rushed for the cover of the trees.

And only there, surrounded by green and shadows, did they stop, hands pressed to their chests, and turned around.

Staring at the inferno. Staring at the betrayal. 

Staring at their lives go up in flames.

Shield in ruins. One helicarrier crashed right into the Triskelion. One into the hangar, water flooding in after it. And the last one still sinking into the river not far from them. 

"Are we winning?" Zach whispered after a moment of tense silence, because it sure as well didn't look like it. Sammy didn't answer.

\--

It was a long drive up to New Jersey in a stolen car. 

Zach was dead silent and still on the passenger seat, his phone turned off but still clutched in his hands, his mind a million miles away as Sammy kept the car steady on the speed limit on the highway.

Thoughts racing so fast.

What was going on? How was Hydra still alive? Who was up there leading? Was there anything in Shield left that hadn't been crawling with traitors?

Strike was Hydra. Strike was Hydra. Rumlow. Rollins. All of Kappa and who knew who else.

Where were the girls? Where was Alpha?

He tried to wreck his brain with information over where his friends had been, where missions had put them. The last information he had over Alpha was the infiltration in Odessa, but hadn't that been supposed to have been finished weeks ago? Wasn't Clint in Africa?

Where was Maria? Natasha? Had Captain Rogers made it out? Had Quention managed to get away? 

How many friends would he have lost come morning? 

And even worse, how many people would he have to call traitor come morning?

\--

It was the dead of night when they dropped off the car in the parking lot of the church in the small town a few miles north of the Radcliff's estate. Sammy even took a few minutes to wipe off all traces, throwing the keys down the drain a block from the church before they slipped into the forest, Zach could only watch and move as she moved. Adrenaline had begun to fade away again and he was just freaking out. Freaking. Out.

Still not wearing shoes, bodies hurting and freezing as night fell, Sammy and Zach only pushed on, goal now clear in their minds, even while everything else was just pure chaos, the raw unknown. Painful confusion. Nothing was making sense anymore.

As the house of his adoptive parents came into view though, Zach gasped and it was all forgotten for just a moment, that feeling of safe and home and goddamn blinding relief shooting through every cell in his body. And now he was afraid, now he was fucking terrified and shaken and gone and so so scared, now he could lose it, especially when he caught sight of the figure pacing on the patio, one hand in his graying hair.

Theodore whipped around with a gun drawn though as they crashed out of the hedge surrounding the estate, running blind and with their last energy. And Theodore's cry of relief was heard loud and clear as he pocketed the gun again in his rush down the patio stairs, letting them crash against him with tears already running. 

"Oh god, you're okay. You're okay." He repeated at least a dozen times as he held them tight, arms around them as Zach clung to him, shaking and trembling, falling apart, because now he could, Sammy was crying just as bad next to him. He didn't look up or move or do anything else but press his eyes shut and ignore everything else but that feeling of safety and home trying to edge into the panic. He felt Teresa and Rita joining the hug and it was just good and bad and too much.

And then they stood there. Just everyone holding onto each other.

No one said a word.

No one even knew what to say.

\--

Zach spent weeks after the fall of Shield waiting for Jonathan to appear from any shadows around him. Weeks of bounding away from nightmares about his brother's voice whispering in his ear while he slices him up.

He didn't want to be alone. Sammy was still reeling from the events, the trio was missing.

It wasn't a good time, their futures in the open, until Maria called them and offered them a place at Stark Industries, working for the Avengers in secret.

\--

After Sokovia, after Ultron, after everything has settled down again, Shield is suddenly there again.

Small and still battered but they're there and still Zach doesn't make it even an option worth looking at.

When Captain Rogers approached him personally about working for the not yet fully named Avengers Agency, he said yes before Rogers could have even really explained.

Zach didn't trust Shield anymore. 

Didn't trust him to keep him safe, because that was still a thing, even if people liked to forget it. Even though he was incredibly happy that people looked at him and saw him for who he really was and never for the blood in his veins.

Oh how he had always wished Sarah to have the same feeling about herself, and barely anyone had even known where she had really come from.

Twelve years didn't change that Zach was still living in witness protection, it didn't change that though people liked to tell him that the world was open for a young man with talents like his, it wasn't true. He didn't have choices, he didn't have options.

He had only one choice.

Shield or the Avengers.

And he didn't trust Shield. Not one bit. Not anymore. 

But he did trust the Avengers.

\--

And out of all of them, he trusted Clint Barton the most still.

"I need your help." 

Even though he still hadn't learned to knock.

Zach didn't even look up from the samples he had shoved under the microscope only one minute ago, just kicked out a chair across the worktop for Clint to sit down while he at least got to point where he could take a break. 

He felt more than saw Clint setting paperwork down on the worktop, and he hoped that wasn't for him, he was already swamped as it was. 

"How may I help you?" He asked as he made the correct crosses on his sheet of notes and then pushed himself away from the table, setting his notes into the right file and storing the sample for potential future re-examination into the freezer. Clint was looking out of the windows down to where Wilson and Rhodes were preparing for a training session as Zach sat down again.

"May have to ask for a favor." Clint turned to him with a little smile and Zach raised an eyebrow at him.  
"The last time you said that, Sarah ended up really mad with me." Zach recalled with a grin, "It was worth it still, but she didn't stop looking at me with the evil eye for two weeks." He told the older man who was his boss now and Clint rolled his eyes, but smiled in that sad fondness of his that he nowadays had in his eyes when the girls were mentioned.

"It's not something people will get mad over. Sammy introduced you to Pietro already, didn't she?" Clint wanted to know and Zach nodded, the speedster without powers who had nearly died in Sokovia, he looked so crushed all the time now. Quiet. Sad. "I know that Sammy and him are getting closer, but she is still extremely busy and with Steve taking her into his projects now she is probably happy to just fall into bed at night."

"Are you asking me to make friends with Pietro?" Zach asked and smirked at Clint who rolled his eyes again.  
"In fact I am, it would do you some good as well to get out of your lab sometimes, and not just for playing video games by yourself." Clint teased and Zach glared at him.

\--

Just to spise Clint, Zach invited Pietro to play video games.

It was a success.

He didn't exactly stop looking so haunted, but at least he laughed and joked for a while.

Progress.

Once upon a time, Sarah had told him that, too.

And Pietro and him became friends, just like Sarah and him had become years ago.

\--

There was nothing more awesome than sitting in the cafeteria during lunch, reading up on research papers developments while munching away on a sandwich and have Captain America and Iron Man sit down on the bench across the table from you.

Awesome enough that Zach nearly choked on a piece of bread and lunged for his water bottle to get air back into his lungs.   
"Captain Rogers, Mister Stark, what can I do for you, Sirs?" He greeted them in the next moment, flushed from head to toes in embarassment.  
"First of all, it's Tony." Stark began, relaxed and at ease as always, despite the unusual surroundings, half the cafeteria was watching them. "And second of all, you might be able to help us." Zach looked from him to Rogers who smiled kindly and laid a file down on the table. 

"Sammy says you could help, bring a new point of view into it. And we really need a new way to look at things, because right now all we are doing is running into walls." Rogers added to Stark's words and Zach carefully pulled the file around to read its title, water bottle dropping from his hands and onto his tray. "If this is too personal though, Zach, you can say no. I do not want you to feel pressured into agreeing, I know this hits close to home for many people here. Tony and me..."

"Yes," Zach interrupted Rogers, something inside of him screaming in horror upon the act, raising his head again he looked at both Avengers, "I'm in. Any way I can, any help I can offer." Rogers eyed him for a moment longer, Stark was already grinning. And under Zach's hand, the file felt warmer suddenly, as if fate had wanted him to be included.

Project Alpha – the missing person case of Shield's only non-Hydra Strike team.

\--

Someone had written 'bring the girls home' on the inside of the manila folder.

And Zach would recognize the handwriting everywhere, Sammy had even drawn little cartoon version of their friends on a sheet of paper, Rogers had added half a comic of all three girls taking turns in punching Rumlow in the face.

Let's get to work, bring the girls home.

\--

It happened while they were down in one of the labs, silently working through the lack of fundamental evidence in the Alpha case. It was frustrating, maddening really, because these three women weren't just some Strike agents, they were her friends, people she still trusted more than over half of the people she was working with now.

Sammy sighed and then blew out a long breath through gritted teeth, staring down at the laptop in front of her for what felt like the millionth time. Another firewall, another lock, another password bridge. Just one brick wall after another, no fucking way in. She chanced a glance over to the other corner of the room where Zach was reading through a file, just another file from the mountain high cases of Team Alpha, just another hope to find the smallest clue.

And of course she wouldn't be the only one with growing anger levels.

She was just the only one who had properly learned to breathe through it.

Sammy flinched as Zach suddenly roared and she had just enough time in whirling around to witness him sliding both hands over the top of the workbench, sending paper and files flying everywhere. And in the middle of all that storm, Zach braced both hands against the now empty table top and leaned down, gasping and panting harshly through gritted teeth.

"Zach?" She tried carefully, taking a step closer to him but stopping when he growled and pushed himself away from the table. Hands immediately went up into brunet hair, making an even bigger mess out of it. "Zach, what's wrong?"  
"Everything!" He yelled, kicking the trashbin across the room and Sammy raised her hands in a soothing gesture when she walked even closer to him, "Everything sucks! We're not getting anywhere. With anything, the files give us nothing, that goddamn laptop can just as well get burned!"

"Hey." Sammy reached out with voice and touch, curling hands around his trembling arms, "Zach, calm down, it's gonna be okay. You're fine, we're gonna..." But he laughed, loud and completely hysterical, interrupting her harshly.  
"Are you kidding me? We're not fine!" Zach snapped and wrenched himself away from her again, still stuck in his panic he stumbled against one of the cabinets, "We're so not fine, and they're not okay, and none of this okay, and none of this will ever be alright again. And I can't fucking breathe!" And he pressed both hands against his chest and doubled over.

Sammy forced herself to be calm and gently guided him over to one of the chairs, pushing until he sat down and leaned forward.

"Now, breathe." He whined and she rubbed over his back, "Breathe and listen for once, you dork. It's gonna be okay. We will find them, one way or another. Maybe it looks completely impossible right now, but we won't give up until we found something, we owe it to them to not give up hope."  
"How?" Zach wanted to know, voice pained and quiet, but he was breathing again, trembling slowly dying down and Sammy slipped her hand up to his neck and then down to tip up his head so she could look at him. "How can we keep hoping?" Zach went on before she could have said a word, "It's been 18 months, Sam."

"I know." She told him, slowly sinking down to crouch in front of him, she had no idea where she was getting her strength from anymore, so much had happened, but still it was there. This belief, this strength, this feeling that she could go on, maybe Steve was rubbing off on her. "I know it's been so long, and I know it looks like we're stuck in a deep dark dead end, but if there is anyone who can get us out of this, then it's you."

"Me?" He wanted to know, brown eyes wide and round, "What could I possibly still do that we haven't tried already? I'm an idiot, Sammy, gimme some blood to analyze, gimme some pictures to go over, DNA to identify, but that laptop?" And he pointed over to the unglamorous black laptop, seemingly laughing at them with another password window. "That's my end, this is where I step out, this is where I throw in the towel and wave all the flags. Zach the loser and Rumlow for the win."

Oh, he was gonna be alright, Sammy thought with a smile, as long as the dramatics were all there, her best friend was gonna be just fine. 

"You may be an idiot, but you’re my idiot.”

"How is that..."

"Shut up for one minute, Zach." She admonished him and he bit his lips, "You're my idiot, alright? Which means that I know you better than anyone else, and the Zach who is my best friend? He'll fucking tear that laptop apart screw by screw, code line by code line before he gives up. You won't give up on your friends, because you know they would never give up on you." And he briefly closed his eyes, Sammy waited patiently until Zach was looking at her again. "And I think just about right now, I know what we have to do."

"And?"

"Pretend it's Jonathan's."

And as almost expected he stared at her, unblinking for a whole minute while she slowly straightened up again.  
"Excuse me?" He wanted to know, "You want me to do what?" And he eyed the laptop as if it was even more of a ticking timebomb now.  
"Yes." Sammy smiled and tugged him back up to his feet, groaning when he didn't help as much as he should have, "They're both assholes, both jerks, both insane. One evil guy or the other, they all think alike in the end after all. And you know your brother, better than you wish to most of the time. Get yourself into his mindspace and then maybe you'll figure out Rumlow's games."

And she pushed him in front of the laptop, turning around to walk towards the door herself, they needed something chocolaty and fries.

\--

It was two in the morning when Zach gave up on not sleeping and dragged himself down into the lab again, coffee already empty before the doors of what Sammy liked to call his "office" closed again. The two room lab was silent, no forensic analysis running at the moment, he had people for the small work now, and his machines were only running when there was something big going on.

Sensitive material.

Rogers and Clint only trusted him with that personally, and that was still something Zach couldn't believe most of the time. 

That someone thought this idiot kid from Canada who couldn't shut up or sit still, let alone act like a normal human being usually, was in any way the guy for the job. Sometimes he still stopped whatever he was doing, expecting to wake up and everything since running away all those years ago was just a dream, but it wasn't. And he loved this job.

Even if it meant the fear over maybe being the one who found the puzzle piece leading to the remains of dead friends. 

Or, the voice inside his head that sounded like Sammy, maybe he would be the guy who kicked the right domino stone and sent them crashing towards finding Team Alpha alive.

"Alright, let's do some work." He sighed, "Lights on." And the lab flickered to life, revealing the chaos of case files and that goddamn laptop still sitting on one of the examination tables. Zach grimaced at it and then set his mug down somewhere before walking over to the laptop. Grabbing it, he left the bigger space behind and stepped into the more hidden smaller room, the light switched on as he stepped through the door and he kicked said door close with a foot, shut out the chaos.

His office space, just a big desk and one cabinet, a couch in the corner, was less desastrous when it came to its overall state, just the usual paperwork madness in the basket in the corner of his desk. Zach set the laptop down in the middle of his desk, hit the switch that turned the window from black to see through again and then dropped down into his chair.

Thinking like a psychopathic insanity ridden assholy bastard had broken some more walls down but they were not any closer really to where they needed to be. But at least now, Zach knew for sure that there was a private server of information hidden away in code on the laptop's harddrive and he could feel it twitching inside of him whenever he thought of it.

There would be something.

Something that would help them.

"Come on, Zachary, you're sleep deprived, over-caffeinated and way too wired." He mumbled to himself as he booted up the laptop for the billionth time, "This is the way you strive. Get it together, dude, and work this bitch." And then with a look to the movie poster hanging on the wall, Zach grinned and wriggled his fingers, "Let's do something crazy."

Pulling up a CAT cable from below his desk, he connected the laptop to the outlet in the wall.

"Jarvis, can you quarantine a place on the server for me? Rise those firewalls up as high as possible, I don't want to imagine what kind of diseases this bastard could hold." He asked into the blue, getting used to AIs, whether it be Friday first or now Jarvis, had been so much fun, and it had been so much easier for him than for Sammy. He was already used to talking to machines and computers all time, the ceiling was just talking back now.

"All set, Agent Calder. Anything else I can be of service of this late in the night?" Jarvis offered and Zach scoffed at the hidden reproach, but then sighed, dragging a hand down his face.  
"Let's go through this together and please make sure I won't open our doors to some Zola created virus, would just be my luck." Zach offered and then opened the encrypted data files.

\--

Several hours later, the sun was up and Zach was so delirious with sleep deprivation that he was just in the right zone to really get work done. Blinking against the green lines of code on the black background, he read over the latest commands again.

One next click was either going to bring on something beautiful or ruin another night full of work.

Jarvis was silent again, either giving him the quiet moment he needed to brace himself or as nervous as he was, this was it. Either it worked or Zach would officially throw in the towel, last resort.

If the crazy plan didn't stick, they needed a miracle.

'Miracles are a thing for magic believers, Zach, we're people of science.'

And with Sarah's words echoing in his mind like a faint memory, Zach took one last deep breath and then hit enter.

“Please don’t shut me out.” He was begging in the next blink of an eye, "Please don't shut me out again, please just let me fucking in. Please, please, please." And with his heart pounding in his ears, Zach watched as the lines raced across the laptop screen, his fingers frozen over the keyboard. "Come on, come on, let science win, please let science win."

The screen went black. 

Zach stopped breathing.

And then screamed as the screen flickered to life with folders and documents, desktop background showing the face of a laughing redhaired woman. 

"YES! FUCKING YES, I'M IN, BABY!!"

And with renewed energy and tiredness completely forgotten, Zachary leaned forward and began to open folders and files.

"Jarvis, can you wake up Sammy and Quentin? There is stuff to go through." And in his new found eagerness and ego boosted adrenaline high, Zach didn't even hear Jarvis reply.

\--

When he felt eyes on himself a little bit later, Zach looked up with a twitch in his muscles, finding himself observed by a clearly tired Sammy and an equally still sleep rumpled Quentin.  
"Why the long faces? Sit down, find a computer, I copied everything over onto the server. Triple checked for any malware already, everything is clear, so no worries about any Hydra virus freezing our entire communication system. Though I actually think that if that were to happen, Sarah might just come back from wherever they have her because I let the database break down by not being careful and eyes wide open enough. Do you remember what she always..."

"Oh my god." Quentin deadpanned with an eyeroll, grabbed one of the laptops stashed on the shelf by the door and then dropped down on the couch, "You're worse than Stark. Give a guy a second to start his brain." Sammy laughed over the whole exchange, smile lightening up her entire face and once upon a time Zach would have lost every train of thought over it, now they're best friends and he couldn't ask for a better one.

When Steve had eyed them a little strangely when he had found them all cuddled up watching their favourite show one night, Sammy hadn't made a move at all to push Zach away even though Zach had really been embarassed as hell being stared at like that by his best friend's boyfriend aka Captain freaking America. Sammy had just ruffled Zach's hair and smiled at Steve. "He's my Bucky." She had said in explanation and Steve's entire being had melted into that doopey grin while Zach had flushed.

Now Sammy walked over to him, hands reaching out to squeeze his probably entirely knotted up shoulders once, leaning down to kiss the top of his head.  
"Told you, you can do it." She told him and Zach grinned, even when Sammy already moved to get herself settle on the couch as well.

\--

He found Sarah's messages.

And he listened to them.

And then again.

Until all he could hear was the shaking breaking sound of Sarah's voice accepting death.

\--

When Clint told him that the Winter Soldier had in fact been sent out to kill Sarah but hadn't actually gone through with it, Zach went up on the rollercoaster of emotions again. He remembered a freaked out twenty year old girl who returned from a desastrous mission in Haifa with fear written into every inch of pale skin, whose green eyes were shadowed by something that had sent Zach's own skin into goosebumbs.

A twenty year old girl who was whisked away for a three week getaway by her older teammembers to lose the trembling in her hands, to lose the images in her mind over what had happened in Haifa. 

Zach knew.

He was only one of three people outside of Kappa who knew what had happened in the Israeli city before a bomb had ripped Kappa's mission into pieces and buried half of the team in a bunker under tons of concrete. And no one but one person knew that he knew, Sarah had told him in absolute total confidance. 

After he had found her in the middle of a panic attack on the shooting range. 

And it was those two hours he had to think about as he stood next to Sammy and Maria on the deck overseeing the airstrip of the base, watching the Avengers greet a ghost back into their family.   
"It's so unreal." Sammy was mumbling quietly, and it probably was for her, seeing your boyfriend hug his former best friend again for the first time in over seventy years. Maria added something but Zach didn't really pay attention.

Because he didn't see Bucky Barnes, and he hated himself for it.

He saw the ghost of a time now long gone. A ghost who had terrified his friend right down to her core, whose ghost touch had haunted Sarah and never stopped haunting her, no matter how much time passed after Haifa, the memory of it had always shaken her right down the middle again and again.

And now as he watched Bucky Barnes break off from Steve and walk over to hug Natasha, Zach hated himself more than ever for a promise made. 'Don't ever tell anyone', he could still hear Sarah ask of him, and if only he had had the courage and the will to break one promise and tell the right people, what pain and suffering could have been avoided.

For Sarah. For Barnes. For Julie and Tess. For them.

Instead Zach had kept quiet and almost ten years after making that promise, it might as well have cost him his friends.

So it was of course then and there, with his mind already down a slope that Clint and Pietro walked their new prisoner down the jet ramp and unveiled his face.  
"Who is that?" Sammy wanted to know while Maria gasped and Zach stumbled a step back, a whole new can of issues being opened in his head, that one labeled 'shared life experiences'.  
"That's Aljoscha Aljenka, Sarah's brother." He choked out and Sammy whirled around to look at him.

\--

He wasn't exactly avoiding anyone in the next few days, he just needed some time to get his head on straight again.

So many questions in his mind.

Again.

Had Sarah ever told Julie and Tess what had happened in Haifa? Had she ever come around to that? Did Julie ever suspect that Sarah was after something in Russia? Had Tess ever wondered about the secrets Sarah had obviously kept? What had Sarah seen in the face of the man chasing her in Odessa, the idol long thought dead or the ghostly nightmare of that night in Haifa?

\--

He had been dragged into the Avenger's common living space by Sammy and Pietro for the evening and movie night after five days, even if no one was actually paying much attention to the movies running on the TV. 

Like not at all.

It was more casual sitting in an relaxed environment while still working, their times were tense at the moment, sometimes you couldn't even push it to the side for an evening of stupid comedies and romcoms.

Zach felt good though, comfortable, it was nice to be surrounded by friends and familiar faces instead of always camping out in his lab and throwing all nighters because he was too tired to make his way up into his quarters. 

So now he was sitting in armchair in a corner by the window front with his laptop, caught between work and daydreaming. The room was lively but not too crowded or loud to be overwhelming. Romanov, Wilson and Rhodes were off base, Banner and Hill were actually working at their assigned workplaces. Vision and Wanda had left for a moonlight walk, and if Pietro's eyeroll had been any indication there wouldn't be a lot of walking involved.

Tony was draped across one of the couches, two tablets being constantly exchanged in his hands as he worked silently, eyes sometimes drifting over to the movie on the TV screen, his lips more often than not mouthing along to lines. Steve on the other couch, shifting through paperwork that had by now taken complete control over the little table standing between both couches and the TV.

Pietro and Sammy were playing cards at one end of the dinner table to Zachary's right, bickering and playfully accusing each other of cheating. At the other end, Clint and Barnes were sitting so close together that Zach was better off not thinking too much about it, bend over Clint's laptop, talking quietly in what he presumed to be Russian.

It felt good.

It felt like there was something in here that wasn't dominated by the threat of Hydra looming over them and the search for the girls running against walls.

Rubbing at his left thumb, he looked down at his own laptop again, he was once more back to encrypting data files and corrupted security footage from Russian traffic cameras. Trying to find something, anything really that could somehow in the long run held in finding his friends.

Zach was motivated more than ever to get ahead, but he was also terrified ever since he had discovered Sarah's lost messages on Rumlow's private locked servers. In a constant nervous panic really since he had heard one of his closest friend's voice shake and break like it had never ever done before, at least not anywhere he could have heard her, not even when she had told him about Haifa.

Sarah was strong, nothing ever hit her, nothing could touch her. Always three steps ahead of everyone around her, enemy or friend.

Sarah didn't beg, didn't plead, didn't whisper with a broken voice.

And then the avalanche had been started. Rumlow had the girls, he had them for long already maybe. Who knew really if he had had them right from the kidnapping in Odessa or if they had been used as leverage between Hydra's fraction in the meantime until no one but Rumlow remained.

What difference did it make.

What difference if they couldn't find them. 

Now Barnes had brought Aljenka in with himself, but their prisoner refused to talk and Zach couldn't find anything on the tons of data and files the Mossad had sent them in help and gratitude over Aljenka's capture.

It was frustrating, probably one of the top reasons on why Pietro and Sammy had not let him sulk in his darkened lab for one more evening. At least up here, surrounded by friends, it felt warm and uplifting. Up here it was easy to remember that he wasn't alone in this.

He missed the girls so much though, especially now where he got lost in his work and no one could help, no one could flick the switch in his head that would finally bring a solution to all the brick walls he kept on running into. A few weeks ago, Sammy's pep talk and half a nervous breakdown had managed to bring him into Rumlow's servers and to Sarah's messages, but Sammy had tried it again now as well and it hadn't gotten Zach anywhere.

He was trailing Aljenka's money, not looking for the connection to Hydra anymore, that had been easy to find. Too easy maybe even, but only because Sarah had always deemed him worthy of keeping secrets and had loved to impress him with Strike stories when she had still been on Kappa. Finding Rollins' old cover story wrapped into a bank account with a steady inflow of Aljenka tainted money had been child's play once Zach had remembered.

No, now he was trying to find out where the money went and what it was used for. Trying to see sense in codenames and hidden meanings behind safewords. Or try and get lucky in catching someone with a familiar face in the restored security footage.

But nothing.

Decryption programs came away empty handed, his brain didn't give him any new keys and the security footage with its really terrible quality didn't bring anything around either. Two bank employees smoking cigarettes outside the bank in a suburb of Moscow, a young giggling couple entering the bank with her arms wrapped around each other. Angelica brushing blond hair out her face with that familiar sardonic smile on her lips as she left the bank. An old woman pushing a stroller along the sidewalk, a dog brushing past her, a child running after it. A blue car driving by on the...

There was a gurgled half muffled scream escaping his lips as he pushed the laptop off his lap and to the ground with a loud thud. Zach jumped up and away from the armchair and over to the windows, pressed his back against the glass and then sank down to his knees while his heart pounded hard enough to have his chest hurt and his rips protesting immediately. The little bit of air he was still taking in in all of his frantic hyperventilating was scratching along burning lungs.

Vision going dark slowly, spots dancing along his still wide open eyes as Pietro flung himself to his knees in front of him before Zach even hit the ground, hands on his shoulders, Zach's hands flying up to hold onto his friend's arms. 

"Hey, Zach? You're okay." Pietro spoke and despite the rushing sound of distant screaming in his ears, Zach still heard him, still saw how Sammy and Clint were rushing over, how Barnes had gotten to his feet as well, moving slower. How Steve and Tony had sat up straight and were looking over to them, everyone kinda holding their breaths. 

Sammy crouched down at his right, Clint gently pushed Pietro a little to the side but Zach mostly looked at Barnes crouching down to pick up his dropped laptop, frowning down at the probably paused video.   
"Hey, Zach, what happened?" Clint asked him quietly but when Zach still couldn't get enough air into his lungs to speak up, Clint threw a look over his shoulder to Barnes, "You see anything, Bucky?"

He wouldn't.

Of course, he wouldn't. How would he? 

That bitch hadn't been a part of their lives.

That bitch had never laid a finger on any of them. 

That demonic nightmare had always been something solely shared between Julie and him. 

"...ninja..." Zach managed to croak out while Pietro kept holding onto his shoulders and Sammy stroke through his hair, Clint keeping his knees from vibrating out of control. The reactions were almost hilarious, where Sammy and Clint wrenched back, Pietro let his eyes widen and Barnes scrunched up his face in total almost adorable confusion.

"What did he say?" Steve and Tony demanded to know almost at the same time but Zach couldn't look away from the look of dawning comprehension on Clint's face as he stumbled to his feet and then over to Barnes. Barnes caught Clint with one arm while Zach let himself fall against Sammy as she wrapped arms around him, Pietro sliding his hands down to hold onto Zach's knees instead.

"The blond one?" Clint fully ignored Steve and Tony and poked at Barnes until he was holding the laptop towards him, Clint's fingers flying over the keyboard in the next moment. Zach nodded against Sammy's shoulder, trying to breathe, just trying to breathe, Pietro called over an affirmative to Clint. This was good, Zach told himself over and over again, this was good, this was a lead, this was something, this could lead to something.

"Do you know this woman?" He heard Clint ask Barnes whose following grunt of puzzled confusion was answer enough. And then Clint was walking back over, set the laptop down turned around though as he crouched back down again, Barnes directly behind him this time, crouching down as well, not wanting to tower over Zach. "Okay, I know this sucks right now, Zach." Clint went into Dad mode and Zach actually welcomed it for a change, "I need to know about her, Zach."

"You do." Zach whispered, "You already do." And he glanced up, met blue eyes that were focused on him and him alone in this moment, "Her name is Angelica." And Clint froze, just like Sammy at his back, Barnes's eyes flickered from him over to rest on the side of Clint's face, over by the couches Steve was slowly getting to his feet.

\--

Once upon a time, his father's program had two girls who stood out like proud beacons of skill, talent and determination. 

Julie. Codename Nina-1. Preferred alias Nina.

Angelica. Codename Nina-2. Preferred alias Nadia.

Both of them leagues ahead of any other girl in the Academy, even of those already graduated and working actively for his father's means. Jonathan had loved to pitch them against each other, especially they had broken the rules and become infatuated with each other for a while. He had gotten it out of them, had even when they had already been the best never stopped pushing them on and on.

On and on.

Because even great was never good enough, not when there was potential for more. 

Jonathan's standards had always risen high above what was humanly possible.

But where Julie had braced her shoulders, let the mask cover her true emotions and learned to play him to her advantage, Angelica had broken into his brother's very control. And therefor answered who was the ultimate better one of the two of them.

Julie had perfected her role, had suited herself into the skin of a ninja so much that not even Jonathan had been able to tell the act in the end, even Zach had often wondered in the end if she was really still the girl he had found to like under all those layers of protection. Julie had wrapped her true persona into tons of guards, had built walls and entire castles around the softest parts of herself, her locked her compassion away and swallowed the key, but deep inside of her she had still been herself, she had still been that girl with dreams so big and love so kind.

Angelica though had broken under his brother's influence, had thrown away everything that was hers and given in to the monster that had been lurking under her skin, awakened more and more by every word Jonathan had whispered in her ear. By the time Zach had left, Angelica had been nothing but his brother's perfect pet, eating right out of his hands.

She was dangerous, erratic, volatile. Not good like Julie but similarly skilled. Angelica didn't care for anything anymore that wasn't Jonathan's approval, and she was not beyond sticking at nothing to get what she needed to make him proud.

Killing. Maiming. Seducing.

After he had left, he hadn't heard from her anymore, and maybe a little ugly part of him had even hoped that she had finally paid the price for her evilness.

But here she was.

\--

In the end, Angelica brought them the girls.

In a roundabout way.

Sarah would twitch hard enough to get a seizure if she heard about this. And Julie would laugh so loud.

But one thing after the other.

\--

Despite managing to calm down again, Zach couldn't sleep that night, and despite Clint insistently repeating that uncovering more about Angelica's potential role in Aljenka-Hydra ties and the three million questions behind the now potential involvment of his father's Academy with Hydra could wait until morning, Zach was working in the middle of the night.

Sitting alone in the common room after everyone had gone to sleep, even if Sammy had offered him up her quarters for the night to not have him walk all the way to the other side of the compound, choosing to stay with Steve tonight. The silence around was a little defeaning now, the night outside the windows pitch black while he stared down at his laptop at the table.

He got aware of someone watching him long before he actually saw Barnes leaning against the kitchen counter across the table from him, blue eyes curiously watching him with an underlying note of worry. 

Puppy status, Sarah's voice laughed in his mind, people look at you and want to carry you back into their nest to protect and pet you. 

"If you were hoping to give me a scare with your lurking, you're at the wrong address." He spoke up and let the video on his laptop start anew, watching the few seconds of Angelica leaving the bank and wandering off camera for the millionth time. "I might look like Bambi and I am in fact a hopeless klutz, but my nerves are thicker than most people think. I grew up surrounded by people like you."

"People like me?" Barnes asked him, uncapping the bottle of water in his flesh hand and taking a long sip before taking the three steps over to the table and pulling out a chair to sit down on it.  
"Silent. Sneaky. Blend into barely there shadows good at hiding." Zach answered easily, Barnes made him nervous still, but not on the scared kind of side, he was more going for the nerdy geeking out kind of side now. This man was not the Winter Soldier anymore, not the assassin who had buried his friend under a three story building, not the man who had been used to kidnap Julie and Tess and chase Sarah until she broke. Barnes smiled, set his water bottle down on the table and leaned back in his chair.

"People like Agent Seaway. Clint told me about Department N and the Academy earlier." He told Zach and Zach supposed after that fright he had given them it was more than fair. Pushing his laptop to the side, he leaned back in his chair as well.  
"Exactly like Julie. She is the best of them all." He replied, lips pulling up into a smile when Barnes silently raised an eyebrow in a non-verbal demand to hear more. 

\--

"Commander Viktora was geeking out over me?"

Oh, damn.

Oh goddamn.

Sarah was SO going to kill him.

And she was not going to make it quick.

Fuck.

Zach, you're screwed.

\--

He looked at Aljoscha Aljenka and saw Sarah looking back at him.

It wasn't logical, not at all.

He was older, taller, stubble on his roughed up face. His eyes were more blue than green.

But Zach looked at this dangerous man and saw Sarah. The shape of the nose. Too pale lips. And the look in those sharp eyes, whether or not the color was all wrong.

"Did you get lost, kid?" Aljenka broke the quiet staring contest they had been caught in ever since Zach had stepped in front of his cell. "I think the playground is that way." The Russian accented voice taunted and Aljenka nudged his chin back towards the door.  
"Oh, I'm right where I wanna be." Zach spoke up as well, "Which is down here, looking at you."  
"Trying to find the monster?" Aljenka chuckled, ugly sound escaping his lips, eyes still staring right back at Zach, but Zach didn't flinch away or showed any other sign of being affected.

Because he wasn't.

Men like Aljenka, he knew them.

"Don't have to try, I can see it just fine." And he took a step forward, "You don't scare me, no matter what you think you can do. You don't hold leverage over me."  
"Who do you think you are? Stick like you, what can you do to me to get me to talk." Aljenka rolled his eyes and broke eye contact with Zach as he leaned back on the cot.  
"Who says I want to get you to talk? I know what my abilities are, Aljenka. I'm not an interrogator, I'm not the guy who comes around to ply off your fingernails to finally make you talk." Zach explained, none of them would do such things as long as Clint kept on being successful in holding Natasha back and his own rage in check, "Not that there aren't people here who are capable of doing so."

"Then what are you doing down here? You have the looks of an analyst, I'm not a computer." Aljenka told him and Zach gave away nothing.  
"Sarah is my friend, I wanted to see if I could see her in you." Zach quietly let his lips form the words, "And I do. I can see everything she never wanted to be in you."  
"My sister is more like me than you could possibly imagine." Aljenka snapped and got to his feet just as the door at the end of the corridor got opened and Pietro appeared first, followed by a frowning Clint.

Well, Jarvis had told him he would get a ten minutes headstart only.

"Oh I can imagine." Zach began as Aljenka stopped right in front of him, separated only by the bullet proof glass, "And you know what? I don't even have to imagine. I know Sarah better than you think you do. Between the two of you, I know whom to be scared of, and it certainly isn't you. You don't have to talk, Aljoscha, you don't have to say a single word, we'll find them anyway." Zach felt Pietro coming to stand next to him and Clint stop behind them, one hand already reaching out to grab onto Zach's right upper arm.

"I know how dangerous Sarah is, how dangerous all of these girls are, my best friend included. I like to call it my best feature, that my closest friends are among the most dangerous women in the world. Maybe that's my type. You can't fool me, Aljoscha, I've known people like you my entire life, and the only one who ever managed to blind me from the truth was Rumlow. Just like it was with Sarah. And that has to hurt, doesn't it?" Zach tested the waters and leaned forward a little, Clint's grip on his arm got tighter in warning. "That has to hurt like a bitch. Him being better at this game then you are. In fact, I quite believe you don't even know yourself where he is holding the girls or what he has done to them. What he has done to your sister. And that is killing you."

Aljenka's eyebrow twitched and Zach blinked at him before finally giving in to Clint's insistent pulling, he let himself be led away from the cell.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Three...

"I know who you are, Calder, and I know someone willing to pay a good price for you." Aljenka snapped out his threat and despite Clint only pulling stronger on his arm and Pietro narrowing his eyes at the man behind the glass, Zach stopped Clint with a gentle but determined hand on his chest. Clint let go of him with a frown on his face, but Zach simply turned around again.

Let his lips curl into a smirk as he still looked down at his feet.

And only when the success was hot in his veins, when the revelation was scary but also relieving in his mind, did Zach raise his head again. Aljenka drew back in obvious confusion when Zach smirked in total joy and victory at him.

"Thank you." He said, moving back to stand next to Pietro, "Thank you, Aljoscha, that was all I needed to know." Zach grinned and actually bowed a little, he could feel it as the light went on in Clint's head as well, could hear the quiet curse, in front of him Aljenka's face darkened.  
"You'll never find her." He snarled and Zach calmly raised a hand to the display on the wall, finger hovering over the buttons as he leaned in closer to the glass.

"Thanks to you, we probably just did. Rest in hell, Aljoscha." And with quick flick of pointer and middle finger, Zach had the speakers cut and the glass screen blackened again. He whirled around the second he could be sure to be unseen by the wrong eyes and he made eye contact with Clint, Pietro looking between them.

"Well, then." Clint began quietly, smile forming on his lips as Zach grinned at him, "Let's go and dig into an Academy. And Zach?" He asked for his attention as they hurried out of the corridor.  
"Hm?" Zach hummed as he took the corner and Pietro wooshed by him to keep him from stumbling over his own feet without even thinking about it anymore.

"Don't ever fucking do that again."

\--

When Barnes got ready to leave for Canada and find the now obvious connection Rumlow's to the Academy, Zach couldn't help but warn him to be careful.

"Don't worry, kid." Barnes told him, not grinning over it or smiling it away, he took it as serious as Zach had meant it, "I know what I'm up against, alright? I'm not taking this lightly." And then he grabbed his bag and walked into the jet where Clint was already waiting for him, Sammy came to stand next to Zach, one arm of hers coming to rest around his waist.

"What do we do if he can't find them?" Pietro spoke up from behind them and for the first time in a long while, Zach found himself smiling even as Sammy came before him with a reply.  
"Then we keep on looking, we're not giving up until they're home." She said and leaned her head against Zach's shoulder.

"He will find them." Zach answered instead, "I got a good feeling about this."

\--

In the meantime, they got other problems, non Hydra related issues.

Sammy's and Steve's break-up was bad, ugly and terrible. 

But sadly enough it also had been coming for a while.

Sammy might have been denying it, but Zach had been able to see that though she loved Steve dearly, there was something there between Pietro and her. Not even mentioning the thing going on between Steve and Tony.

So no, Zach was not thrown for a loop or slammed against a wall when Pietro pulled him aside a few days after the fall-out and then proceeded to drag Zach out into the forest that surrounded the base. And only when they could be sure they were alone, Pietro told him about last night, about following Sammy to the club and dancing with her and then her drunken confession.

No, Zach wasn't surprised, he was actually fucking relieved. 

No more biting his tongue and keeping everything only to himself.

Belatedly though he realized that Pietro was not skipping in joy but actually "...really freaking out. Oh my god, you are freaking out. Why are you freaking out?" He wanted to know, leaning back against the tree and watching Pietro pace up and down the hiking path. By now, Zach was completely used to holding conversations with someone who from time to time blurred out of sight without ever really vanishing.

And right now, Pietro's emotions were all over the place, resulting in his powers slipping out of control as well.

"So she told you she liked you, I don't see the big deal. Come on, man, that was obvious. You would have to be stupid to not have realized it..." And there Pietro was suddenly right in front of him, blue eyes wide and frantic and Zach snapped his mouth shut for a moment before he went on, laughter gone from his voice, "And apparently you're an idiot. The fuck, Pietro? Come on!"

"We are friends!" Pietro argued and Zach snorted, and god that felt good, dragging a hand down his face he made a step forward, pushing a hand against Pietro's chest until the other man was walking backwards. He did so until he back of his knees hit the rock and he sat down, Zach took his hand back and pointed a finger in Pietro's face for a moment.

"Just friends, hm? I've seen people with less chemistry between them hook up and keep up a relationship, Piet." And Zach couldn't even finish his sentence before Pietro was back on his feet.  
"You knew?" He demanded to know and Zach grew even more confused.  
"Of course I knew! She is my best friend, I saw it the first time I caught her looking at you. Sammy likes you, and judging by the rate you are going here, I can only assume that you like her, too." Zach concluded and Pietro made a high keening noise at the back of his throat that Zach had never heard from him before.

"Yes, I like her. More than friends, more than what we have now." Pietro confessed and Zach grinned, as if he hadn't known that all along as well already.  
"So why are we out here in the woods?" Zach wanted to know and then pushed a hand into his hair, "Oh my god, this is Sarah and Julie all over again. How do I always get myself into these situations...Listen, Pietro, she probably needs a bit of time still to stop being hurt by what happened with Rogers but she likes you, you like her, I don't need a PHD to explain to you where that equation ends up in."

"But what...." Unfortunately Pietro wasn't able to finish whatever he had wanted to say because his phone buzzed and his face darkened as he quickly read over the text, "Hydra has taken people hostage at UCLA." And in the next second Zach's vision went blurred.

He gagged as Pietro set him down agan in front of the base hangar where Sam and Rhodey were already suiting up.

"I FUCKING HATE IT WHEN YOU DO THAT!" He was left screaming as Pietro began laughing next to him, leaning over and propping his hands up against his knees, Zach breathed through the nausea, "And we're not done by a long run, Maximoff. There is a whole shovel talk coming your way."

"Yes, Sir!" Pietro laughed and then saluted at Zach as he already jogged over to where Clint was waving for him, Zach rolled his eyes and then slowly walked back into base, intend to find Sammy and give her an earful over the men she kept getting involved in. Good taste but damn they could be annoying and exhausting.

But Pietro would be good for her, and Sammy would be good for him. And if they really reminded him so much of Sarah and Julie, then it could only be a good sign.

\--

It took Barnes three weeks.

Three weeks.

And then he called.

And of course on the evening of the day after Los Angeles and the debacle of Clint's ears and a really pissed of set of Maximoff twins.

\--

Sammy jumped to her feet, grabbed his arm and slammed her hand upon the speaker button, and Zach knew what will happen, knew what words would be spoken and he was frozen, hand over his mouth, tears in his eyes.

"Can you repeat that for me, Barnes?" Sammy asked and Zach saw how she started grinning, how for the first time in years she was really grinning for good, pure raw euphoria.

"I found Strike Team Alpha. The girls are alive."

And around them the entire control room burst into screams of joy and cheers of celebration and someone yelled to notify the Avengers but Zach didn't care about any of it as Sammy threw herself into his arms and hugged him.

"I need to find Clint." Sammy babbled in the next moment as she pulled away again, brushing a hand over her face just as Maria came running over to them, taking over the call with Barnes to get coordinates and timeframes. Zach watched Sammy run off while people still clapped hands to his back.

His friends were coming home.

And then he was running from the control room as well, fully ignoring the "hey" Maria sent after him, throwing himself surprisingly gracefully around corners until he was gasping for breath in the elevator.

"Jarvis, is Tony in the labs?"

"Certainly, Agent Calder. Shall I tell him of your news?" 

"No, no, I want to do that myself."

"As you wish." 

Jarvis brought the elevator down to the labs and Zach ran with excuses spilling from his lips through the working agents until he could reach the private sector with the labs and workshops of Tony, Rhodes and Banner. And Jarvis be thanked, the glass doors swooshed open just before he could plant his face into them, revealing Rhodes and Tony sitting side by side on the couch, hologram open in front of them.

"Bucky!" Zach gasped out and braced himself against the worktop table he stumbled against, Rhodes and Tony snapped their heads up to stare at him, "Bucky found them! Bucky found the girls!" And they both jumped to their feet, Tony racing over to him, one hand going to Zach's shoulder, "He found Alpha, the girls are alive!"

And the look in Tony's eyes, Zach would remember it just as long as Sammy's grin.

His friends were coming home.

\--

The End.

For now.


End file.
